Vacillating between academia, business, and civil service in his early life, Ye eventually established himself as a leading bibliophile and literatus.

After passing his entry-level imperial examinations,[1] Ye briefly pursued a career in business, becoming a successful trader with interests in rice, salt, and textiles.

[4] As an editor and publisher, Ye is known for his Shuangmei jing’an congshu (雙梅景闇叢書; literally Shadow of the Double Plum Tree Anthology), which collects four Chinese medical classics on sexual cultivation that had been partially preserved in the Ishinpō: the Sunü jing; Yufang mijue; Yufang zhiyao; and Dongxuan zi.

[7] Unlike his contemporaries Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao, Ye was vehemently opposed to Western intellectualism and opined that the decline of modern China was due to the people's "deviation from tradition".

[2] Ye also found Christianity to be inferior to Confucianism; he believed that there was "much absurdity" in the Old Testament and that "the religion of Jesus ... cowed people into submission.